Supporting families through cancer

TOMORROW is National Bandanna Day, providing an opportunity for the community to support the 23,000 young Aussies who face a cancer diagnosis in their family every year.

National Bandanna Day is Canteen’s annual fundraising and awareness campaign, which has been supported by Metricon for the past three years, financially and through the involvement of more than 2,000 employees, including those across regional Victoria.

Canteen has been able to launch a new program ‘Parenting Through Illness’ with Metricon’s support, offering highly tailored advice and support for parents dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

One in three adult cancer patients have one or more children under the age of 26, so the work of Canteen is especially valuable for parents.

Young people facing this challenge of a parent with cancer are also three to six times more likely to experience high or very high levels of psychological distress than their peers.

Metricon regional Victoria team member Kylie Jones has had to face the reality of having difficult conversations with her two young children multiple times.

Kylie battled cancer on three separate occasions, and she was unable to receive parenting support through these times as this was before ‘Parenting Through Illness’ was launched by Canteen in partnership with Metricon.

Kylie said cancer had been the biggest challenge she had ever faced, and it was made so much harder by not having proper support for parenting during this time.

“Having difficult conversations with my children over three different cancer diagnoses was incredibly tough, I certainly wish there was something like Canteen’s ‘Parenting Through Illness’ when I was figuring out how to engage my children in an age appropriate way,” she said.

“The work that Canteen do is life changing, I know how important it is for parents currently going through this incredibly challenging set of circumstances, particularly as children have had to deal with so much change already during the COVID pandemic.

“When a child is faced with a cancer diagnosis, be it their own, that of a sibling, or that of a parent, it is important that those in their support network know how to approach difficult discussions.

“It makes me very proud to work for a company who care about the community, knowing that without Metricon’s funding, ‘Parenting Through Illness’ wouldn’t be able to be run.”

To learn more about National Bandanna Day and how to get involved you can visit bandannaday.org.au